Chapter 38

Thirty-Eight

WILLIAM'S APARTMENT, LONDON - JUNE 28, 1816

WILLIAM

I left as soon as it was feasible after Xander signed the documents. The entire process was a blur as was the walk back to the office, Celine's file clenched tightly in my grasp.

I slipped into the office quietly. Everyone was industriously occupied as usual. And as had become standard, Bates's chair was empty. I glanced to my office. The door was mostly closed.

With a sigh, I handed Xander's signed documents to Matthews for filing. Celine's folder was still pinched tightly between my fingers.

I stalked silently to my office and peered in the gap of the open door. There was my missing clerk, crouched behind my desk trying unsuccessfully to work a letter opener into the locked drawer.

I pushed the door open forcefully so it banged against the wall. From the other side I heard an irritated "Oi!" from Kit. Of more interest to me was Bates spinning around toward me and shoving his hands behind his back in the flurry.

"Oh, sir. I didn't realize you had returned, and I was checking to see if there were documents that needed to be filed."

"And you needed to break into my desk to do that?"

"No! I-I beg your pardon?"

"Which is it?"

"What?"

"Are you denying the accusation or are you confused as to the nature of it?"

"Both?"

"Get out." He shuffled past me, trying to press himself to the wall to get as far from me as possible while still escaping through the door. He started for his empty desk before I interrupted. "Out!"

"Sir?"

"Your employment is terminated—without severance and without a reference. Get out."

"But…"

Kit, finally sensing something amiss, popped his head out. "Will? I thought we discussed?—"

"Caught him going at my desk with a letter opener."

He froze for a moment before turning to Bates. "Right, you heard the man. Gather your coat."

"But…" The man protested, his eyes wide and skin a pallid with a clammy sheen. At the sight of Kit's frown, he abandoned his protestations. I had been on the receiving end of it so often that its foreboding nature was somewhat lost on me, but Kit could glower a man to death.

Bates grabbed his coat and stumbled toward the door, yanked it open, and rushed away.

The rest of the clerks returned to their paperwork simultaneously, feigning disinterest with impressive alacrity.

"Will, are you all right?"

Wasn't that a question.

"I don't rightly know."

"Go on then. I can find something to keep this lot busy."

"Really?"

"Bring me a little cake thing in the morning."

"Done."

I followed Bates out to the street. Every part of me wanted to trace the now familiar path to Celine's house. Instead, I returned to my apartment above the office, folder still in hand.

The sun had just begun to set when I finished sorting the entirety of Gabriel's deception.

I wasn't overly knowledgeable about horse racing or breeding. I'd only attended the one race and only because I was certain to find him there. But he had charged obscene studding fees.

And they were more than enough to put a dent in Parker's annual income, if not outright obliterate it.

The scheme was clever. Two similar looking studs, one with a pedigree to put royalty to shame, the other just slightly above average. Charge a small fortune for studding the exceptional one. Occasionally use its inferior twin instead. Keep exceptional records, reap secondary rewards in two to three years betting against the inferior's offspring when they debuted. Collect an even larger fortune.

Parker was one of the unfortunate souls Gabriel had duped twice. I hadn't studied the man's finances, but certainly the banknote was enough to ruin him and his offspring for generations to come.

There were other drafts in the folder as well, but only one with a signature that matched the flourished W I had studied so closely in recent weeks.

I knew I ought to go to Celine with this. To see how she wished to proceed.

But I wanted to confront the man. Toss him into a cell and throw the key in the Thames. Demand to know why he hadn't just made his suspicions public and shamed Gabriel into returning the funds. Hurt him the way he hurt my Celine.

Except she wasn't mine. Not anymore. If she ever was. She had found the answers on her own, she had no need of me now.

Idly tracing my finger along the W while I considered my options, I was startled by a tap, tap, tap at the window. There, perched on the sill was Celine's damned bird. He gave his usual disgruntled two-tone chirp before tapping at the window once again.

"Shoo!"

Tap! Tap! Tap! More rapid this time.

"Begone you. Go bother your mistress."

The tapping increased in pace and intensity, threatening to break the window. I rose and strode over to the window, yanking it open with a force that should have sent the bird skyward.

Instead the beast flitted up to my hand for a peck. The nip of its beak was severe, drawing a drop of blood. Could birds have rabies?

It did a little loop in the air before coming back down on the sill and tapping the glass hard once again.

That motion did it. Just in my periphery, I saw movement. Below my window, I found a new pile of straw, and the familiar form of Bates as he knelt fussing with something.

It took a moment to fully grasp what I was seeing. It was only the damn bird pecking me again that launched me to action.

I sprinted through the door and down the stairs, half-tripping in my haste. I rushed around the side of the building to see Bates fanning the familiar spark of a tinderbox.

Then I was before him, kicking the box out of his hands without conscious choice. It landed with a clatter a few feet away. Grasping him roughly by the neck with both hands, I hauled Bates to his feet. With one hand, I reared back to deliver a blow to his face.

Thunk!

I registered the sound of the board that slammed across the side of my face before I felt it. White hot agony burned through my skull a second later. Before I could right myself, the board rained down another blow, this time on my side. I heard the snap of my rib before the pain registered with a great choking gasp.

Blood streamed into my eye from the first hit as I tried to roll over onto my knees. To do what—I hadn't the slightest idea. Bates pulled his foot back to deliver a kick to the same ribs.

Air abandoned me. My head was screaming for air, but my lungs wouldn't obey. Every attempt led to a choking sound that would have been frightening if I could think on it.

My vision darkened at the sides with yet another kick, this one to the stomach. And then I heard the sweetest and most terrifying sound in the entire world.

"Will!"

And then the blackness took her too.